India Shining On The Global Platform Through PM Modi’s Foreign Diplomacy

Foreign diplomacy has been one of the prime areas of focus under the Narendra Modi reign. The prime minister has travelled relentlessly since being elected in 2014 and have managed to strengthen ties with numerous nations across the world. The foreign policy is termed as highly energetic and we have seen the prime minister taking each of his tour with great zeal.

One of the groundbreaking steps since PM Modi was elected in power was the Make in India Campaign. Prime Minister launched the initiative on 25th September 2014. Its main aim was to make India the hub of manufacturing across the globe. The initiative encouraged all domestic as well as the multinational companies to produce their products in the country. The Department of Industry Policy and Promotion is leading this initiative with the aim to raise the contribution of the manufacturing sector upto 25% of the total Gross Domestic Product till the year 2025. Promoting foreign direct investment, developing the manufacturing rights and implementing the intellectual rights are some of the prime areas of focus of the Make in India Campaign. The Campaign is targeting around 25 sectors of the Indian economy. The sectors range from Information Technology to Business Process Management to many more.

FDI – First Develop India

FDI has increased drastically from 23.30 billion in FY14 to $60.08 billion under the Narendra Modi government. It has been one of the biggest achievements by the government. According to a release by Ministry of Commerce and Industry the inflow of FDI has been one of the highest till date. The huge FDI led to a surprise in many as demonetization happened in the 2016 year end. Many from the opposition also criticized the demonetization as it would lead to derailing of the economy. According to a latest release, India is presently one of the most attractive locations for investing in foreign direct investment. The rapid increase in the foreign investment was a result of the crucial policy reforms the government undertook.

New Beginnings

What began with much energy continues till today with the 5 year term almost complete. With just seven months in power, the prime minister made a total of nine foreign visits. The first set of countries in the prime minister’s foreign visit included the neighborhood nations. The prime minister sent an invitation to all the leaders of the SAARC nations for his inaugural ceremony.

One of India’s closest friends, Bhutan was the first country to welcome our newly appointed Prime Minister in June 2014 followed by Nepal in August. In November 2014 was the 18th SAARC summit in Kathmandu Nepal. The Prime Minister attended the same and made a significant reach to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif.

2015 witnessed the repetition of the prime minister’s visit in the neighborhood countries. This time the visit was made to Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka along with Afghanistan and Bangladesh. A visit to the five of the Central Asian stans in 2015 was another significant highlight of the prime minister’s foreign policies.

In 2016, the prime minister marked his visit to the gulf nations. He visited Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In August 2016, he already visited the UAE. The Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan was the chief guest of the Republic Day Parade in the year 2017.

The highlights of the prime minister’s visits were those made to Japan and parts of Europe as well as U.S. These visits, especially the one with the U.S. were crafted with the aim to attract investors and increase aid.
PM Modi’s Firsts

Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Israel was the one of the highlights as it was the first by any prime minister to visit the nation. The Congress party, as always did not lag behind in ridiculing the government. The efforts made by the present prime minister to strenghthen the country’s global dynamics cannot be compared by any of the opposition leaders.

As commonly known, the Indo-US relations were quite tensed under the UPA era. With five trips to the U.S., including the UN General Assembly meeting in 2014, our relations with the U.S. are one a much better pace. Infact, India and US have been in good terms since the election of Narendra Modi.

Defence, political and economic platforms have vastly seen the improved the Indo-US ties. The countries signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) which was the long pending defense agreement since the year 2004.

India has also improved its ties with the UK. Meeting the Queen Elizabeth twice along with the counterpart Theresa May, PM Modi has developed strong ties with the nation. India is the third largest investor of the United Kingdom. This makes their ties even stronger. PM Modi signed the memorandum for the National Clean Ganga Mission, vocational programmes and skill development along with an agreement between NITI Aayog with the UK’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Though the relations between India and China have seen quite tough times, PM Modi was one of the first ones to congratulate the president of China, Xi Jinping when he was reelected. PM Modi has also managed to strengthen our country’s ties with Germany with each of his visit and meeting with the Chancellor Angela Merkel. Germany is India’s largest trading partner in the entire European Union.

The country is altogether on a different platform globally. The work of PM Modi is highly appreciated on the international platform by numerous countries. As we all know the positives and rapid development by this government is a boon to the country along with being a threat to the opposition. No wonder we can see the opposition criticizing the state of the nation regularly.

What comes as a breakthrough is the result of the increased participation and the involvement of any Prime Minister of our country till date with the rest of the world. Be it the UAE, Russia, Europe or U.S. PM Modi has left no stone unturned in not only strengthening the ties but proving India as a significant emerging power globally.

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Source: OneIndia

Image Courtesy: BusinessInsider

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